From left: Final Exit members Dr. Lawrence D. Egbert, 84, of Baltimore; Thomas Goodwin, 65, of Punta Gorda, Fla.; and Roberta Massey, 66, of Bear, Del., were charged with assisting in a suicide and interfering with a death scene.
(Courtesy to Pioneer Press)

Members of a national right-to-die group have been booked and released from custody in connection with the 2007 death of an Apple Valley woman.

The group Final Exit and three of the four members charged appeared Monday, July 2, in Dakota County District Court on a total of 17 criminal counts. District Judge Karen Asphaug released the defendants on their own recognizance, without bail.

A grand jury in May indicted Final Exit and members Dr. Lawrence D. Egbert, 84, of Baltimore and Jerry D. Dincin, 81, of Highland Park, Ill., each with two felony counts of assisting in a suicide, and two gross misdemeanors of interfering with a death scene involving the death of Doreen Dunn, 57, a former musician.

Dincin did not appear in court Monday because he is near death, attorneys said.

The indictment also charges group coordinator Roberta Massey, 66, of Bear, Del., with two felonies of assisting in a suicide and a gross misdemeanor of interfering with a death scene. Thomas Goodwin, 65, of Punta Gorda, Fla., was charged with assisting in a suicide and interfering with a death scene.

Asphaug ordered that the defendants attend all future court appearances and remain in the United States, unless given court approval to leave. She also ordered the release of the grand jury transcript, which includes testimony from Dunn’s husband, daughter, son and doctor, as well as evidence exhibited for the grand jury.

The next court hearing is scheduled for Oct. 15.

The defendants will cite the First Amendment in their argument for dismissal, said Robert Rivas, a Florida attorney representing Final Exit. Rivas said that Minnesota law — which prohibits the aiding, advising or encouraging of suicide — violates freedom of speech by preventing the group from educating people on how to commit suicide.

Defense attorneys will be reviewing 40 boxes of evidence collected by police in the Apple Valley case.

Dunn appeared to have died of natural causes when her husband found her lying on the couch, Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said after charges were filed. Dunn’s family didn’t know that she had contacted Final Exit and had chosen to die of helium asphyxiation, he said. Dincin and Egbert were with Dunn that day, Backstrom said.

Dunn had “intractable pain” after complications of a medical procedure in 1996, Backstrom said. However, she did not have a terminal illness.

According to a death certificate, Dunn died of atherosclerotic coronary artery disease, said Dakota County Medical Examiner Lindsey Thomas. However, someone who dies of asphyxia from a plastic bag and helium has no findings at autopsy that are diagnostic, Thomas said.

The Dakota County criminal case is the second against Final Exit, a Georgia nonprofit run by volunteers and serving U.S. residents who “are suffering from intolerable medical circumstances, are mentally competent, want to end their lives” and meet the group’s criteria, according to its website.

This year, the Georgia Supreme Court dismissed charges against the group and some of its volunteers. A similar Arizona case resulted in minor convictions for two volunteers. In that case, Egbert was found not guilty of conspiring to assist in a suicide.

It was anticipated that Egbert, an elderly man, would be released from custody Monday, said his attorney Kristen Novay. She described Egbert as “a remarkable man” who is caring and concerned for others. With any trial comes stress for a defendant, she said.

Egbert has “handled it with a lot of dignity and with a lot of patience,” she said.

Final Exit’s supporters say its members do not physically help people or give them what they need to commit suicide.

However, Backstrom said the group’s “exit guides” visit people before the suicide and typically help them practice. The volunteers also return to comfort them during their suicides and then remove all evidence of the suicide if they’ve been asked to do so, Backstrom said.

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